A Habit Called Faith
40 Days in the Bible to Find and Follow Jesus
About
Can faith become a habit? Can habits lead to faith?
Habit is at the center of human behavior; we are what we do. When we want to add something to our life, whether it's exercise, prayer, or just getting up earlier in the morning, we know that we must turn an activity into a habit through repetition or it just won't stick. What would happen if we applied the same kind of daily dedication to faith?
With vulnerable storytelling and insightful readings of both Old and New Testament passages, Jen Pollock Michel invites you into a forty-day Bible reading experience. Vividly translating ancient truths for a secular age, Michel highlights how the biblical text invites us to see, know, live, love, and obey. The daily reflection questions and weekly discussion guides invite both individuals and groups, believers and doubters alike, to explore how faith, even faith as small as a mustard seed, might grow into a life-defining habit.
"Deep and relatable. Spending forty days in Scripture along with A Habit Called Faith could be one of the best things you do this year. Jen is one of the greatest writers of our generation!"--Jennie Allen, New York Times bestselling author of Get Out of Your Head, founder and visionary of IF:Gathering
"No matter your faith journey, you are welcome here within these pages. Jen warmly invites readers into a forty-day experience that will forever change the root of the readers' faith."--Rebekah Lyons, bestselling author of Rhythms of Renewal and You are Free
Endorsements
"Deep and relatable. Spending forty days in Scripture along with A Habit Called Faith could be one of the best things you do this year. Jen is one of the greatest writers of our generation!"
Jennie Allen, New York Times bestselling author of Get Out of Your Head, founder and visionary of IF:Gathering
"No matter your faith journey, you are welcome here within these pages. Jen warmly invites readers into a forty-day experience that will forever change the root of the readers' faith. Allow yourself to become vulnerable as you take a deep dive into discovering the joy waiting on the other side of an authentic relationship with the Father."
Rebekah Lyons, bestselling author of Rhythms of Renewal and You are Free
"In every area of life, we know that thriving comes at the price of submitting to regular, best practices. Thriving athletes (and healthy people in general) submit to best nutrition and fitness practices, thriving students to best study practices, thriving musicians to best instrument and vocal practices, thriving parents and spouses to best family practices, thriving leaders to best organizational practices, thriving speakers and writers to best communication practices, and the list goes on. And yet, quite oddly, many believe--or at least behave--as if thriving faith is something that will just happen to us, all on its own. As with every worthwhile pursuit, a thriving and sustained faith will stand or fall on whether we submit to best spiritual practices. For this reason, I'm so thankful for people like Jen and for resources like A Habit Called Faith. Especially in an age like ours in which so many souls are languishing from passive neglect, I can't think of a more needed book."
Scott Sauls, senior pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, and author of Jesus Outside the Lines and A Gentle Answer
"As a pastor, I'm often asked for resources that aid in daily Bible reading, and I often don't know how to respond. Many Bible study resources tend to be either saccharine and superficial or turgid and inaccessible. And this is why A Habit Called Faith is such a needed and vital book. Jen Pollock Michel has given us a resource that has paired smart, theologically rich insight with writing that is warm and evocative. This book invites us into the story of Scripture and the stories of regular men and women who have taken up this habit of faith. And, wonderfully, Michel makes room for readers wherever they are in their life of faith--wary skeptics and longtime disciples are both welcomed in and helped by this gift of a book. Best of all, A Habit Called Faith made me eager to read the Scriptures more often, to enter more deeply into this story of redemption, and to take up this habit called faith anew."
Tish Harrison Warren, Anglican priest and author of Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life
"Getting into genuinely life-changing habits is never easy, but with Jen Michel as a companion, embarking on regular Bible reading will become more of a burden-lifting than burden-creating practice. For all looking to start, restart, or refresh daily time with God, this is the book for you."
Sam Allberry, pastor, speaker, and author of Why Bother with Church? and Seven Myths about Singleness
"Jen Pollock Michel is one of my favorite living writers. This book calls us to see knowing God as not just cerebral assent but as formation and habit, as living a life through the One who is Life. A Habit Called Faith will help to strengthen you when you are wavering, encourage you when you are doubting, and call you back to your life in Christ when you start to feel you are losing your way."
Russell Moore, president, The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention
"Today the Bible is often seen as a strange artifact from the past, with Christian beliefs viewed as exotic and irrelevant. The result is that in some corners of the West, the Christian faith has not simply been rejected; it has mainly been left untried. And yet, there remains a hunger for something beyond the dominant secular story lines of our age. This means that while people sometimes sense a need for something more than the shallow scripts secularism has to offer, they are also suspicious of any attempt to dust off ancient sources that claim to be a divine guide. Jen Pollock Michel models a way forward by inviting skeptics and doubters to "come and see" that Christianity does not just claim to be true--it claims to work. But only by stepping into the Bible and trying it on can one see if it works. So Jen welcomes everyone to come along on a journey to see, not only by navigating us through the smaller biblical plotlines (in Deuteronomy and the Gospel of John) but also by winsomely mapping these within the bigger story line of the Bible and engaging with the twists and turns of our modern lives. A Habit of Faith is a book that believers and unbelievers alike should read--and ideally read together."
Joshua Chatraw, director of the Center for Public Christianity and author of Telling a Better Story
The Author
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Jen Pollock Michel
Jen Pollock Michel is the award-winning author of Teach Us to Want, Keeping Place, Surprised by Paradox, and A Habit Called Faith. She holds a BA in French from Wheaton College and an MA in Literature from Northwestern University,...
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